Justice VS Mercy

If I were to choose between justice and mercy, I would choose justice over mercy. Justice should be enforced in the law to ensure that criminals or offenders get what they deserve, the punishment given out by the law. This is done so to ensure that the offenders do not repeat their mistakes and to warn the general public not to commit the same crimes or else they will be given the same punishment or even harsher, allowing everyone to live in a society without any fear of their safety, thereby giving other countries the impression that Singapore is a country where people abide by the law and not do anything against their conscience, attracting more foreign talents to Singapore to work. If justice is not enforced in the law, criminals and offender will continue to commit crimes, bringing danger to others’ lives as they will not learn from their mistake.

However, mercy still needs to be shown. If the crimes committed are not serious like vandalism, the offender should be given a second chance and let off with a light statement such as a fine and short period of jail term since it is also their first time. Speaking of vandalism reminds me of Oliver Fricker case where he was caught vandalizing on the Mass Rapid Transit trains and given 4 strokes of caning and 5 months’ jail term. The punishment given to Oliver was harsh as I do not think that vandalism should warrant a caning as it might do physical harm and probably psychological harm.
Besides this, Oliver break-in into the MRT terminal shows that there is flaw in the security system and it allows the person-in-charge to look at his mistake, a mistake that will have cause the lives of many people should the person who break in is not Oliver but a terrorist who wanted to plant a bomb in one of the trains.

Hence, this incident serves as a reminder to all Singaporeans to be more secured and not let things to be just as they are. Back to the topic about justice and mercy, I still think that justice is more important than mercy in most circumstances to uphold the law.